GameTheaterXP and Win2K random reboots?

[DaveyB]

Ok, here's the deal. I bought the Hercules GameTheater XP on sale at BestBuy for $120. Hooked it up, and everything was running great, or so I thought. Well, it seems as though Windows 2000 doesn't like the Hercules drivers too much. If I go to certain pages like www.icq.com/support and click on the "Live Help" link, it will load a JavaApp, and right after it loads, my system will dump to the bug-checker. I'm also assured a reboot when using ICQ chat as well. It always dumps with the error:

"DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL"

It also does a memory dump too. This usually happens so fast though that I don't get the chance to see what's going on, it just hangs and reboots. I was lucky though and it hung long enough for me to get that bit of info. Only seems to happen when I'm playing MP3's though. If I'm playing a game or something, it works flawlessly. The Even Viewer says this about the reboot:

"The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x000000d1 (0x00000001, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0x00000001). Microsoft Windows 2000 [v15.2195]."

My specs are the following:

AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.2 GHz
Asus A7M266 Mobo
512MB of NEC DDR RAM
IBM Deskstar 60GB HD
Hercules GameTheater XP w/v2.02 drivers

Does anyone have any ideas what's going on? Perhaps changing the slot the card is in might do something? Perhaps my BIOS on my mobo needs updated? Any ideas guys? Thanks in advance!

 

[Guest]

You should check out the forums at Hercules site. The Game Theater is not working well under 2000, even worse under 2000 with more than 256megs RAM, and barely works at all under XP.

Some are using hacked drivers to get partial function but it certainly isn't good enough.

Hercules has known about the consumer driven Microsoft movement to the NT+ platform for a long, long time and has done very little to support it.

They are making many people into lifetime Hercules haters.

Pally 1.2@1.4 (10x140)
MSI K7 Master
Swiftech MC462
Crucial 256 DDR x1

 

[DaveyB]

"The Game Theater is not working well under 2000, even worse under 2000 with more than 256megs RAM, and barely works at all under XP."

I was aware of some of the problems under 2000, but wasn't aware of those and the RAM. Not quite sure why it more RAM would make it run worse, but then again, I'm not the one who made it....I have a SB Live X-Gamer sitting here as well..perhaps I should try installing that.

 

[dpaige]

Maybe its the motherboard? I have a 1.4 Athlon & A7m266 MoBo. Did this problem start after you upgraded to Driver version 2.0? Try installing the older drivers. I have never had a problem with my GTXP.

Dante